OF TELEVISION AND TRANSPLANTS An infant's life is saved, but TV's role raises questions of fairness

It was perhaps the television coup of the season. Live on the Phil Donahue show last Tuesday, a call was placed to Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids. Looking on were Donahue's guests for the day: the parents of a California infant known as Baby Jesse, who desperately needed a heart transplant. A spokeswoman for the hospital got on the line and was persuaded to reveal the impossibly good news: ''We are donating a heart to the baby,'' she declared. The cameras closed in on Jesse's stunned parents as they broke into cries of joy, smiles and tears. The audience went wild....

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